Looping over tasks in 1.9.4

[Ali Jabir]

Hi all,

I am trying to do 

    - name: Check if package-1 is installed

      command: dpkg-query -l package-1

      register: deb_check

      ignore_errors: yes

    - name: Check that package-1 designated ports are free

      wait_for: port={{ item }} state=absent timeout=10

      with_items:

        - "{{ package-1.ports }}"

      when: deb_check.stderr.find('no packages found') != -1

This works fine. But I want to do this for multiple packages. Doing this for every package is going to insanely increase code repetition. Is there a way to loop over tasks?

Please note that I am using Ansible 1.9.4 which I cannot change.

If any one can help on this.

Thanks

-AliJ